New Pains Of Being Pure At Heart EP

There's certainly no shortage of exciting CD releases this September, but Pains of Being Pure At Heart's latest EP Higher Than The Stars completes the set, certainly for me anyway. The half sized follow up to the eponymous February debut is out September 22 on Slumberland records, and will feature 4 new tracks from the My Bloody Valentine inspired shoegaze band.

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart sound as if the members of Slowdive, M83 and My Bloody Valentine were all 17 again, and made a noise pop side project inspired by twee. Whilst the sun soaked sound may not be entirely original, the songwriting is fantastic - Pains of Being Pure at Heart warm you up from the inside with their luscious, reverb-coated sliding melodies. The dubbed down boy/girl vocals are naive and optimistic and this theme convincingly carries on into the new material.

The new single Come Saturday is a fast paced, Jesus & Mary Chain inspired shoegaze track which is out on 7" this August. The follow up, Higher Than The Stars is out on Slumberland records September 22 before a full US tour and then a full UK tour in October through December. Pains are definitely not a band to neglect their UK audience - they've already visited the UK this spring on tour, playing a wide selection of shows nationwide in support of their LP.

Higher Than The Stars is more euphoric, and even cuter than anything they've released before, and that's saying something. For some reason unknown, this track just makes me deeply happy and nostalgic, in the same kind of way that those Graveyard Girl/Teen Angst M83 breakdowns had been doing long before I discovered this band. The new song is much more synth-heavy and guitar-light, as well as being better produced and recorded than any of their other material; its silky electronic execution has a definitive 90s spin on it, unparalleled by any newgaze band i can think of from modern times. Sometimes bands are just born two decades too late - I can't help but feel if this band was from the 90s they would be an undisputed household name.

Higher Than The Stars EP is out September 22 on Slumberland

Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Higher Than The Stars (MP3) (taken from the Higher Than The Stars EP)

Pre-order Pains Of Being Pure At Heart on Amazon.